Milwaukee Author Releases e-Book

Author Barbara Manger Releases an e-Book of Her Soft-Cover Book, Riding Through Grief

Book Is Aimed at Helping Others after the Loss of a Loved One

MILWAUKEE, WI—May 28, 2014— After receiving numerous notes of appreciation for her printed Riding Through Grief soft-cover book released last October, Author Barbara Manger announced that an e-book version of it is now available through amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, itunes.apple.com, and other websites.

In the highly acclaimed Riding Through Grief book, Manger of Milwaukee, Wis., shares how her family coped when her beloved son, Matt, died in a sudden bicycle accident in Chicago at 29 years of age. In a recent interview, she said: “Many individuals – more than most people might think – experience the sudden and unexpected death of a loved one. While there is no particular ‘right way’ to deal with this devastating kind of reality,” she stated, “learning how other families have coped can help those grieving find their own path to healing.”

The book’s exploration of grief and loss describes her son as a lively young man and details the incredible struggles of the other family members to cope with the shock when they learned of his death. Their immediate challenges included planning the funeral, facing a continuing struggle to accept his death, and then finding meaningful ways to honor their memory of him.

Those ways included friends and family participating in a bicycle procession through the streets of Chicago to chain a “ghost bike” at the site of Matt’s accident; placing a hand-carved stone bearing his name at his favorite camping spot in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and then holding a tearful but helpful farewell ritual; and, with the aid of volunteers, constructing a shelter in Matt’s memory for hikers on the North Country National Scenic Trail in Michigan, a place Matt had dearly loved.
    
Manger says in the book, “Those and other events were significant to our renewal and return to life, not as we had known it, but as a new chapter without our son’s physical presence. By reviewing Matt’s life and writing about how we coped, I found a profound gratitude for the life that was his. During the three years I was writing the book, mostly just to examine Matt’s life and help my own feelings and recovery, I began to think that what we were doing as a family to deal with the painful struggle of losing Matt and living without him could be helpful to others. That motivated me even further to complete the book and share it with others.”

“My hope is that this book will bring peace to others still trudging through the dark tunnel of grief.”

Barbara Manger’s e-book edition of Riding Through Grief, priced at $2.99, is now available for the Kindle, the Nook, and ibooks: Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/ Riding-Through-Grief-Barbara-Manger-ebook/dp/B00J9V1SP2, Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/riding-through-grief-barbara-manger/1117164623, and iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/riding-through-grief/id869591964?mt=11.

Soft-cover books of Riding Through Grief may also still be obtained at amazon.com and Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee and through Boswell's website, http://boswell.indiebound.com/search/apachesolr_search/riding%20through%20grief. They can also be purchased online via many independent bookstore websites or at indiebound.org (an association of independent bookstores.) Any local indie bookstore can also order the book for its customers. For more information about Riding Through Grief, visit www.ridingthroughgrief.com.

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Footnote about the Author: Barbara Manger is an author, artist, and art educator. Her first book, the award-winning Mary Nohl: Inside and Outside, A Biography of the Artist, was published by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation in 2010. Manger also co-authored a young person’s version of the book, Mary Nohl: A Lifetime in Art, published by the Wisconsin Historical Society in 2013. Manger has taught at Cardinal Stritch University and Alverno College. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally, and her prints and drawings are included in a number of public and private collections. She has served on the board of numerous nonprofit organizations, including the Board of Trustees of Beloit College. Manger is the recipient of the Governor’s Award in Support of the Arts for having founded Artists Working in Education Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides meaningful art experiences in schools and parks for thousands of at-risk children. Barbara Manger and her husband Bill Lynch reside in Milwaukee. Another son, Luke, and his wife Kathy and their three sons live in Wyoming.

Psychiatrist Julia Hinkle Penn, M.D., who has more than 30 years of experience counseling parents about grief and loss, wrote the foreword to Riding Thorough Grief and stated, “Riding Through Grief is an important contribution to the literature dealing with the loss of a child."